I’m off to Monterrey tomorrow morning, so regular service may be disrupted thru Sunday. I will not be streaming the Friday night CMLL show this week.
CMLL announced the field for the 08/30 Gran Prix yesterday.
- Matt Taven (ROH)
- Kenny King (ROH)
- Jay Briscoe (ROH)
- Mark Briscoe (ROH)
- Mecha Wolf 450 (The Crash)
- Oraculo (The Crash)
- Luke Hawx (The Crash)
- Big Daddy
It’s Mexico vs US/Puerto Rico this year with no other countries involved. Big Daddy is better known as Big Daddy Yum Yum from a famous (infamous?) match with Tenzan Kojima in NJPW in 2015. He was wrestling around Mexico City at the end of May and early June randomly and must’ve impressed someone in CMLL at that time. It’s a random inclusion, but it’s a random field.
The Briscoes have been very good in CMLL the few matches they’ve been here. Same with Mecha Wolf. (Same with Adam Brooks, but he seems to be back in Australia and CMLL isn’t paying for flights from Australia apparently.) Matt Taven has a lot of history in CMLL. The rest are just random names to the CMLL audience. Kenny King is in his second Gran Prix but didn’t have much of a roll in the first one. Hawx & Oraculo are not known in the US and the matches Big Daddy was working weren’t exactly big ones. The star power seems much less than the last two versions. On the other hand, those last few shows were built around the patriotism of the occasion and maybe it doesn’t matter who they are. (And maybe it helps that they’re all American or American adjacent at this moment.) This is not a lineup that interests me as a fan but it may draw all the same.
It also doesn’t really matter if it interests me as a fan because I will not be able to see it live anyway. CMLL mentions, at the end of their announcement, the 08/30 show will not stream live on any platform. If it’s anything like the last few times, they’ll actually stream it to their YouTube channel on a private stream and then unlock it a bit after midnight CT that night. CMLL could’ve done this show on PPV but there attempts at PPVs have been such a disaster in recent past that I’d guess they’ve given up on the concept entirely. This also heavily hints the Aniversario show will not be airing live for similar reasons.
Tickets for the Aniversario show go on sale Monday at 11 AM. Tickets (which never include the cheapest areas) run from 483 to 2352 MXP including fees. The low side matches last’s hair match, the high end is the same as the Niebla Roja/Gran Guerrero mask match though a little less than last year. You can see the recent prices here; my takeaway is La Mascara got robbed in the price for his mask. I think it’s about what you’d expect for a Ciber/UG match.
Ciber and Ultimo Guerrero went around and around on CMLL Informa about that match, with nothing really resolved. Ciber wants a fair title match (specifically no referee Edgar) before he’ll agree to a hair match. Ultimo Guerrero wants Ciber to agree to a hair match before he’ll commit to putting the title on the line again. The closest they got to a conclusion was Ciber seemingly agreeing to a match where both their hair and the championship was on the line, though that still wasn’t definite. They’ll be back at it again on Friday. There’s space for another singles match between the two on the Gran Prix show and maybe that’s the time to make the announcement of the hair match.
There was no mention of Kawato at all on CMLL Informa, not on the Gran Prix announcement or in the Okumura interview. It sure seems like he’s not wresting in CMLL because he’s not in Mexico now, but I haven’t been able to confirm that. The NJPW Super J Cup is this weekend and I guess there’s a chance he might show up there instead. (On the other hand, the other recent NJPW rookie sent elsewhere has vanished for months, so there may be some other story.)
That Super J Cup starts tonight in Tacoma, Washington. CMLL matches:
- Rocky Romero vs Soberano Jr. in a first-round match
- Caristico vs BUSHI in a first-round match
- YOH vs Dragon Lee in a first-round match
The winners of the Soberano & BUSHI matches face-off in the next round in San Francisco on Saturday. Dragon Lee faces the winner of Ryusuke Taguchi & Jonathan Gresham. The losers will still be in tag matches, and will also wrestle on the 08/25 finals show on Sunday in Los Angeles. Dragon Lee is the only one of the three who stands a chance of going far, though Caristico likely is at least advancing one round. There’s not a lot of attention on these shows; NJPW not streaming these shows live (and giving no specific date when it’ll be available on VOD) has dampened the enthusiasm for them. It’s like the RIOT shows I’m going to – they should be a lot of fun to experience live but might just get lost in the mix by the time they show up.
The Arena Coliseo Liger farewell show is now up on NJPW World. That’s the last missing one from the weekend. I heard it was interesting but haven’t seen it yet.
The first match for the Aniversario show has been determined. Dalys won a CMLL Women’s Championship chance by winning the Universal tournament. She’ll get that match on 09/27. Marcela is the current champion, though she’ll be defending the championship on 09/15 in Japan against a challenger to be named. Dalys will get the title match no matter who ends up as champion. Dalys is also announced as facing Tae Honma on that 09/15 show, Marcela & Dalys are also booked on the 09/15 Fukumenmania show.
Silueta replaces Vaquerita on Sunday’s show.
Marca has quotes from Okumura, Felino and Ultimo Guerrero, though nothing too noteworthy. The CMLL Wednesdays press interviews included Mano Negra Jr., who says he’s been training for six years for a debut. He still hasn’t had it, outside of Arena Coliseo Guadalajara.
Angelico & Jack Evans vs Private Party has been added to the AEW All Out show on 08/31. That may be the full show, so any other AAA involvement would probably be in the women’s battle royal (where 11 people are yet to be announced.)
CMLL matches announced for the ROH Global War Espectacular tour
09/06 Detroit
- Volador Jr., Triton vs Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia
09/07 Chicago
- Volador vs Matt Taven for the ROH Championship
- Rush vs Barbaro Cavernario
- Triton, Caristico, Stuka Jr. vs Jeff Cobb, Jonathan Gresham, Jay Lethal
09/08 Milwaukee
- Briscoes & Barbaro Cavernario vs Bandido, Tracy Williams, Mark Haskins
All matches will air live on ROH’s streaming service. Rush and Cavernario have only faced in a singles match once, with Rush winning in Guadalajara back in June. (The match was on YouTube but is now private.) That sounds like a promising match, though Rush’s matches have tended to be one-sided in ROH. ROH seems like they’re loading up that Chicago show in hopes of drawing from the audience that has supported lucha libre shows in the area.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions Dragon Lee is currently booked for the ROH show in Las Vegas, the same night as the Aniversario.
As a ticketholder for the AAA NY show, I’ve still received no update on the status of my ticket. I’m sort of seeing it as a sunk cost and rather hang around to find out how the ticket change is handled at this point. If you are looking for a refund, it looks like contacting the Garden might help get one.
SuperLuchas looks back at Villano III’s career. He passed away one year ago yesterday.
Mamba and Angelito broke up a couple of months ago.
Lineups
CMLL (SUN) 08/25/2019 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Amperaje & Temerario vs El Jabalí & Fúnebre
2) Baron Blanco Jr., Fantástico, Luminoso vs Capitán Cobra, Quka, Reyko
3) Black Sugar, Neutrón, Paladin vs León Blanco, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
4) Difunto, Joker, Star Black vs Maléfico, Paymon, Vaquero Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Hechicero, Pólvora, Templario vs Audaz, Esfinge, Tritón
A rare all CMLL DF main event on a Sunday show. Those guys are probably working the sponsored show on Saturday and staying the extra day. Neutron – still appears to be the same Neutron you may recall – is feuding with Leon Blanco among other issues here.
